WFNO
WFNO is a Fox-owned-and-operated station serving New Orleans, LA and the gulf coast region. Broadcasting on channel 8, WFNO is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations. Launched in 1953, WFNO was an CBS affiliate until 1957 with the launching of WWLL and remained an ABC affiliate until 1995 with the broadcasting realignment. In addition to running the FOX schedule, WFNO also runs syndicated programming, including Supermarket Sweep, Match Game, The Real, and TMZ. WFNO also two subchannels: 8.2 (for Movies!) and 8.3 (for Buzzr TV). The station was formally owned by Crocodile Broadcasting until they sold it to Krueger Broadcasting on December 30, 2015. WFNO is the primary station for the New Orleans Saints. On June 24, 2016, WFNO was given to New World Communications, then shortly after, sold to Fox Television Stations, making WFNO the first network-owned station in the market. History The station first signed on the air on November 1, 1953. It originally operated as a primary CBS affiliate, while splitting ABC programming in off-hours. When WJMR-TV (channel 4) signed on in September 1957, WJMR-TV took over the CBS affiliation leaving WFNO with ABC. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the station consistently ranked at a distant third place in the ratings behind WWLL and WNLA (Now QTV affiliate WNOQ), even as ABC topped the national ratings for a time in the mid-1970s. One of the primary reasons for WFNO's third-place position was the station's heavy pre-emptions of network programs. For example, during much of the 1970s, WNOJ preempted portions of ABC's daytime soap opera lineup and aired westerns, cartoons and off-network sitcoms in their place. Additionally, WNOJ did not carry many of the network's Saturday morning cartoons, as well as American Bandstand. WNOJ also pre-empted ABC's late night programming, which prior to the 1979 debut of Nightline, consisted of movies and reruns of primetime series. Columbia Pictures sold WFNO to Oklahoma City-based Gaylord Broadcasting Company in 1977. Under the new ownership, WNOJ reinstated ABC's entire lineup of daytime soaps to its schedule in the fall of 1978. In spite of ownership changes and programming modifications, WFNO was still unable to improve its standing in the ratings. WFNO started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June 1986, becoming the last commercial television station in New Orleans to transition to a round-the-clock schedule. When Gaylord Broadcasting began a gradual paring down of its station group in 1987 (which would not be completed until 1999), WFNO was sold to the Burnham Broadcasting Company. The station continued to underperform in the ratings into the 1990s. FOX Affiliation On December 18, 1993, the Fox Broadcasting Company outbid CBS for the rights to the NFL's National Football Conference television package. In March 1994, Fox partnered with minority-owned communications firm Savoy Pictures (which would serve as majority partner) to form SF Broadcasting. On August 25, 1994, the company bought WFNO for $229 million. As part of the deal, Fox signed a long-term agreement, in which the network would affiliate with SF's four "Big Three" network affiliates, beginning in the fall of 1995. Fox originally planned to own a minority voting stock in SF Broadcasting; however, in 1995, Fox opted against holding a voting interest (which would have resulted in the stations being counted against the FCC's station ownership total), although it would retain an ownership stake. The transaction was completed in the summer of 1995. WFNO affiliated with Fox on January 1, 1996, ending its 43-year affiliation with ABC, which moved to independent station WWOM (channel 26). Of the former Burnham stations that switched to Fox, WFNO was the only one involved in the deal that was an ABC affiliate: Unlike the New World Communications-owned stations that joined Fox around the same timeframe, the Savoy stations, including WFNO, carried Fox's children's programming on weekday mornings and afternoons as well as on Saturday mornings; the network later discontinued the Fox Kids weekday blocks in 2002, with the Saturday morning lineup remaining until its successor 4Kids TV ended in November 2008. The station acquired additional syndicated talk shows to fill certain daytime slots where ABC programming formerly aired. Because of Fox's acquisition of television rights to the National Football Conference, the switch resulted in channel 8 becoming the unofficial "home" station for the New Orleans Saints, carrying many of the team's Sunday afternoon road games. On November 28, 1995, Silver King Communications (operated by former Fox executive Barry Diller) announced that it would acquire Savoy Pictures;14 at the time of the purchase, Silver King's existing stations had mainly been affiliates of the Home Shopping Network (both Silver King and HSN were later acquired by USA Networks). The sale of WVUE and the other SF stations was approved and finalized in March 1996, with its other assets being merged into the company that November. On April 1, 1998, Silver King subsequently sold the stations to Emmis Communications for $307 million in cash and stock, as part of a sale of its major network affiliates in order to concentrate on its formerly HSN-affiliated independent stations. Hurricane Katrina After Hurricane Katrina struck Greater New Orleans on August 29, 2005, WFNO temporarily moved its operations to the studios of FOX affiliate WMAA in Jackson, MS. The damage that was caused to the building was so severe that Emmis released much of the station's on-air staff from their non-compete clauses, allowing them to seek employment outside of the market without penalty. Following the storm, WFNO presented a rotating 15-minute newscast that was streamed on its website and was produced out of WMAA's studios, slowly restoring the station's regular schedule as developments faded and reconstruction on WFNO's news operations continued. WFNO later resumed its over-the-air broadcasts from a low-power transmitter as an alternate site, which provided a reduced signal that did not reach most of the market; the station's analog signal was upgraded to full power on September 19, 2005 from its transmitter facility in Chalmette, which had flooded during the storm.] In mid-June 2006, construction of the station's permanent news set and weather center was completed. Before then, a temporary news set and newsroom were set up in the station's production room. Station manager Vanessa Oubre said that remodeling/reconstruction of the rest of the building was expected to be completed by November 2006. The sale of the station was also affected and was delayed for two years because of the rebuilding; Emmis had intended to divest all its television assets by the start of 2007, but retained ownership of WVUE in the interim until a buyer was found. In 2009, Emmis finally found a buyer in Crocodile Broadcasting. Crocodile Broadcasting then sold WFNO to Krueger Broadcasting on December 30, 2015. Programming Schedule Category:Channel 8 Category:New Orleans Category:FOX affiliated stations Category:Former CBS affiliates Category:Former ABC affiliated stations Category:Fox Television Stations Category:Television channels and stations established in 1953 Category:1953 Category:Louisiana